Monday, February 25, 2013

This may be the last time you see a Kroger logo on my blog. I think I have finally had it up to "here" with trying to shop at Kroger.

I have continued to shop at Kroger, even after it stopped doubling/tripling coupons. Why, you may ask? Well, mostly out of habit, I guess. We started shopping at our Kroger right after Hubby and I got married. Prior to that, I shopped at a different Kroger. We were happy that the place we found to move to was close to a Kroger. We both liked it and have always been satisfied with our shopping experience there.

When our kids came to live with us, money got a little tight, so I relearned how to bargain shop and started using coupons....a lot of coupons. And Kroger was the perfect store to do it. I got great deals and kept our family well fed on a reasonable budget.

Then Kroger stopped doubling/tripling coupons, so I no longer got the deals I used to. But all our kids had moved out, and out money was not as tight, so we just kept shopping there. But Kroger's prices keep going up. I know....I know....everything is going up. But we have some healthy grocery store competition in our area and Kroger is just not competitive. But we still kept going to Kroger pretty much every weekend. And sometimes, Hubby makes trips in between.

We can also shop for groceries at WalMart, SuperTarget, HEB and a couple of local chain grocery stores. But we haven't been...until lately. Oh, I am still not a fan of WalMart and we haven't been to Target in a long time. But, lately, local grocery stores have been getting some of our dollars that Kroger used to get exclusively.

And after today, that percentage will go even higher. This was an insignificant incident in my life, but it was just the final straw, I guess.

A while back, I had bought a box of Ball canning lids and rings. When I was using them, one of the rings had a defect and was unusable, so I emailed the company regarding the defect and was sent a coupon for a replacement box of rings. (I thought that was very nice, since only one ring had the defect.) So, yesterday, even though I didn't need the lids, I saw them as I walked down the aisle and decided to go ahead and get them and put them in the closet with my other canning stuff.

I got to the checkout and all went well until the cashier scanned the coupon for the canning lids. It wouldn't go through...he looked confused. Then he tells me that it is for $5 and the canning lids are only $4.69. So I told him just to put it in for $4.69. I just wanted the lids.

HE COULD NOT GET IT TO WORK.

After a few minutes. I told him to give me back the coupon, take the lids off and I would get them at WalMart where they can get a coupon to work. He handed back the coupon, totalled my order and I paid. Then I decided it was time for a well placed complaint, so went to the temporary customer service desk. (Oh, yeah, my store is being remodelled so it is a mess.) After waiting for a few minutes and not being assisted by the girl that was taking forever to do something else, I went to the closest checkout where the cashier was standing around and asked if she would call a manager.

She did and while I was waiting for a manager, I glanced down into my cart and saw the BOX OF CANNING LIDS that I had given to the cashier to remove from my order. Checked my receipt and they had been removed. So, yes, I was stealing a box of lids from Kroger.

Now, I was irritated!

When the manager finally came, I introduced myself, told him how long I had been a customer of his store and about my frustration. His response, "Okay"...to everything I said. He DID offer to take care of the canning lid coupon and I told him forget it. I was going to Walmart with the coupon. I imagine that as soon as I walked away, he forgot I even talked to him. But I won't.

I don't need to work so hard just to buy groceries. Not get deals, just get groceries.

I would say, "Sorry, Kroger.", but it is not my fault I am leaving you. You just don't want my business.

Monday, February 18, 2013

So the rest of my 4 day weekend was so relaxing. We did something everyday, but nothing really hectic.

Friday, I think we hung around the house, except for a quick trip to pick up Hubby's new glasses then a trip to a local grocery store that had Swai fish on sale for 1.88/lb. We bought a 15 lb case. It was $1.11/lb cheaper than Kroger's sale price! Really! It is divided up in our freezer and should last us about 6 months or so. So our freezer is stocked with ground beef, chicken from a previous sale and ground beef.

Saturday, we had lunch with MIL and then visited with Chance and Jacob Saturday evening. Jacob turned 6 on Friday and we celebrated his birthday!

Oh, and the heart of stone....well, it was really a heart of beef. LOL! Hubby made me a heart shaped meatloaf for dinner tonight. It was yummylicious! And it matched his tatoo. LOL!

It was nice to come to a yummy dinner after the sucky day I had a work. But I won't bore you all with that.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

I know I have been really quiet lately. I guess it is a sign that my life has been a little dull lately. It hasn't felt that way to me, but I just didn't take time to sit down and write about it.

Work is the same old, same old. Busy, busy, busy and for some reason, my boss thinks nothing of volunteering me for more projects just because he knows I will get them done faster than anyone else. Too bad none of them include a big, fat raise!

Since I have been swamped at work, what better time to take off 2 days to celebrate Valentine's Day with my Hubby. :-)

I started the day with a trip to the doctor to treat a sinus infection. I have had it for a couple of weeks, but kept hoping I really didn't. Am I the only one that does that? I was keeping it a bay with old formula sudafed and mucinex. (Not capitalized as they were both store brand. LOL!) But starting Sunday night, I was waking up around 4 or 5 am with vicious sinus headaches, so knew it was time for drugs. But I made myself wait until Thursday, since I already had it off.

I actually see a PA, who is out on maternity leave, so saw a different PA. We spent

most of the time talking about our families, as she is also a stepmom that married some kids. We got along very well. She wrote me prescriptions for antibiotics, low dosage steroids and I got a shot. WooHoo!

Then I went to my hairdresser for a haircut. I was ready to get rid of some hair and let him cut it shorter than he has in a LONG time. Plus, since we were discussing the fact that Big Hair is coming back....no really, I have seen it in some hair product ads....he made my hair REALLY big. But I made him tame it down some before I left. It looked like this when I got home (I will never be able to get it to look this good again.):

Hubby and I headed to the pizza buffet we like only to discover that it had moved....and no longer had a buffet! We were bummed. We ended up going to a chicken place. Then to the meat market to buy 15 lbs of ground beef to stock the freezer. It was a deal at $22.

We are so romantic for Valentine's Day! LOL!

He DID give me candy and a sweet card and I got him candy and 2 pair of Vday boxer shorts. It is a tradition for him to get boxers for every holiday that I can find them for.

Oh, and he bought us a cheesecake. Yummy! We didn't buy flowers this year. We got ground beef instead.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

As a Purex Insider, I recently received a free bottle of Purex Crystals for Baby to try for myself and I just love it. Regular readers will be surprised to hear that I did the laundry myself this week. Yes, I did. Generally, Hubby does the laundry, but he went camping on Superbowl Sunday and I decided it was the perfect time to try out Purex Crystals for Baby. I didn’t have any baby laundry, so I used it on my own laundry.

I am so glad I did! I love the scent and it made my clothes smell wonderful. I don’t think it really smells like a baby, though I guess it would if you washed baby clothes in it then smelled the baby wearing them, that would set the mental connection. But I am really old school and think all babies should smell like that pink baby lotion we all used to use.

The scent is so nice and not overpowering at all. But it DOES last. I pulled somethingout of my drawer today to wear....okay, it was a bra....and just stopped to sniff it…..it smelled so GOOD! But the smell does not overpower my perfume. I really love it!

According to Purex, Purex Crystals for Baby is the newest member of the Purex family and was developed with babies' gentle skin in mind. So no you can add long lasting fragrance to your baby's laundry!

A gentle, long-lasting freshness

• Baby-inspired fragrance

• Hypoallergenic

• Dye free

• 87% Natural formula

Enter the Welcome to the World Sweepstakes

Purex is proud to introduce the "Welcome to the World" Sweepstakes featuring Purex Crystals for Baby.One lucky grand prize winner will receive $1,000 and 250 2nd place winners will receive a coupon for a free bottle of Purex Crystals for Baby!
AND....

Purex gave me 3 coupons for a FREE bottle of Purex Crystals for Baby (max value $6.00) to keep or give to my readers. Though I am sorely tempted to keep them all and just share my opinion with you, I will not. I am going to give all 3 of them away! Yeah for you! It is super easy to enter. All you have to do is one or more of the following:

• Check out Purex.com and leave a comment telling us something interesting you learned about new Purex Crystals for Baby. (once)

• I know how some of my readers like daily entries, just because they like to come to my blog every day, so you can also enter daily by leaving a comment about a funny baby story. We all love those! (daily)

• And just to get the word spread about the sweepstakes, you can link back to this giveaway from your blog and get an extra entry. Just leave me a comment that you did. (once)

• Share this post on your Facebook page and get another entry. Just leave me a comment that you did. (once)

• Tweet about it and get an entry. Just leave me a comment that you did. You can do this one everyday if you want. (daily)

Winners of the 3 coupons will be chosen by random drawing on Friday, February 15 and the winner will be posted on my blog and notified by email.

Good luck!

*Purex provided me with a bottle of Purex Crystals for Baby so I could review it. However all of the opinions expressed here are, as always, my own.

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About Me

I am married to the man of my dreams and we are happy empty nesters. I have always loved looking for deals and have found that since our kids moved out, we have a LOT more money thanks to my deal hunting. So I keep doing it.
I love reading other blogs and finding new, and old, ideas on saving money and making life better.
The best part of "blog world" is all the fabulous, funny, witty, people I have found!